The Sexland Experiment

[Cavsfan1985]

The NBA is all about having elite players. I think we took the best player left who we thought could be elite. If look at last teams who have won a title you need an elite wing. If we find and elite wing I think you can win with 2 undersize guards if both are all star level players. I think it hard to win in the playoffs with your best player a pg. I think Garland can be better then Sexton unless Sexton really improves his defense,

 

[Cavatt]

The NBA is all about having elite players. I think we took the best player left who we thought could be elite. If look at last teams who have won a title you need an elite wing. If we find and elite wing I think you can win with 2 undersize guards if both are all star level players. I think it hard to win in the playoffs with your best player a pg. I think Garland can be better then Sexton unless Sexton really improves his defense,

Good point. Yeah people say that Porland hasn't won anything, but who is their elite wing? Next question is when is the last time a team won without an elite wing?

 

[CleveRocks]

I think an unstoppable wing transitions a team from pretty good to competing for a ring. Toronto is the latest evidence of that. So we pick that up last.

 

[Ozone]

LeBron James would have been a bust if he was injury prone.

Sin,

Captain one Liner

Garland has an injury right now so there is that

 

[Cavatt]

Garland has an injury right now so there is that

With what?

 

[The Human Q-Tip]

I just think this whole defense thing is not put in the proper perspective. The poor defense from last year did not come out of nowhere. The defense on the finals team the year before was also horrendous. The people in charge of the defense were never able to cobble together a suitable defense, unless Lue took the reins.

I have seen teams of "bad defenders" play good or great defense with the proper scheme, and I have seen good defenders get burned repeatedly because no one helps them.

Mike Brown had the #1 defense with Drew Gooden at PF. If it's not on the coaches, then the team is hopeless and they should just get rid of everyone and start drafting for defensive upside.

If it was all on the coaches, then everyone who played for a good defensive coach would be a good defender, and everyone who played for a bad defensive coach would be a bad defender. There wouldn't be any such thing as an All-Defensive team, or DPOY. Or at least, they'd all come from whomever is the best coach.

That clearly isn't the case. The Cavs were a top-10 defensive team in 2016, but bottom 10 in 2017. Exact same coaches.

 

[cabs]

I'm a big believer in it being able to work. I think the bigger problem this upcoming season is our team doesn't fit with them. We need length, defense and shooting around them and we don't have much of that especially length. I'm looking forward to the time where we can start putting pieces around these guys to make a winning team, right now its all asset collection.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

Garland has an injury right now so there is that

Considering he has been cooking current all-stars and other NBA vets in off season workouts/scrimmaging within the last 72 hours I'm not sure where you got this idea?

 

[Sir'Dom Pointer]

Garland has an injury right now so there is that

Getting annoying bro.

 

[mhi]

Very good article on these two guys.
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2019/8/27/20833956/the-rookie-curve-darius-garland-cleveland-cavaliers-collin-sexton

The difference between what the Cavs and Hawks are doing is telling. Young was the only player in the NBA last season with a worse defensive RPM than Sexton, but Atlanta isn’t asking him to be a defensive stopper; the Hawks are surrounding him with length and athleticism to protect him on that end of the floor. A team trying to build around either Sexton or Garland should be trying to copy that formula. It’s hard to hide one bad perimeter defender. It’s almost impossible to hide two. Even in a best-case scenario where Garland and Sexton become a next-generation version of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, there’s a reason those two have always come up short against Steph Curry and Klay Thompson in the playoffs.

The endgame for Cleveland may not be a Sexton and Garland backcourt. It’s possible that drafting Garland a year after Sexton was similar to what the Mavericks did when they took Luka Doncic a year after taking Dennis Smith Jr.: They selected the best available player without worrying about fit because they had already fallen out of love with their other young building block. The bigger concern for the Cavs is that they made the same mistake with Garland that they did with Sexton. A 6-foot-2 guard can take you only so far if he’s not a good passer.

I agree with him for the most part. I think once we shed our contracts after this upcoming year, we need to start building what can amount to a cohesive roster. Our offseason next year will be telling as far as how capable/competent this FO is.

 

[Cavatt]

If it was all on the coaches, then everyone who played for a good defensive coach would be a good defender, and everyone who played for a bad defensive coach would be a bad defender. There wouldn't be any such thing as an All-Defensive team, or DPOY. Or at least, they'd all come from whomever is the best coach.

That clearly isn't the case. The Cavs were a top-10 defensive team in 2016, but bottom 10 in 2017. Exact same coaches.

Didn't mean to say it was all on the coaches, but I need to see some defensive coaching from the new staff. I saw the old one fail repeatedly. I think saying it is impossible for this team to defend is unfair until we see a system that fits the roster.

How much do NBA coaches matter?

With a record 11 championships to his credit, it's easy to argue that Phil Jackson is the greatest coach in NBA history. Then again it would be hard not to...

valleyofthesuns.com

analysis does prove in part that coaches make their biggest impact on the defensive end as four of the top five coaches and five of the top eight led defenses more than three points better than expected. Former Suns coach Scott Skiles ranked as the best defensive coach (3.7 better per 100), while Thibodeau, Mike Fratello and Jeff and StaThis n Van Gundy round out the top five best defensive coaches (which passes the smell test).

It’s also worth nothing that new Suns defensive coach Elston Turner has spent the past decade coaching with Rick Adelman, whose defenses have performed 1.9 points better than expected despite his reputation as an offensive coach.


I think it is interesting that they are saying the coach has more impact on defense than offense, and that is the way I think according to what I have seen. Koby obviously believes this as well. He is following the idea that these young kids can learn defense, but offensive talent is a much longer slog.
When the team makes the jump from 20-25 wins to something like 40 wins, it will largely be on the defensive side of the ball. They were competent offensively last year, so there is more room for improvement in the other area.

 

[TheISHT]

So in the article it talks about Dame and CJ not being able to get past Steph and Klay. If you switched those 4 players between their two teams GS WOULD STILL WIN.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

So in the article it talks about Dame and CJ not being able to get past Steph and Klay. If you switched those 4 players between their two teams GS WOULD STILL WIN.

Lol right.....I mean there AREEEE 3 really big reasons why Dame and CJ couldn't get past Steph and Klay...

The 3 reasons: Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala.

As for the roster cohesion, I get it, but I think its lost that the Cavs are literally only 1 year into this rebuild. Just because we took Sexton doesnt mean we got a jump-start on the process .That's just one pick we got to take, which ended up being a decent pick looking at that part of that draft. Only one guy that went behind Sexton is clearly more valuable right now and that's SGA.

The first year or two of the rebuild is always spent purging the old roster, and starting asset accumulation. Year 3 is the first year where some true cohesion starts to form in terms of building a team that fits. The Cavs are still in the midst of purging the roster.

Atlanta is a full year ahead of us in that regard, really 2 if you think about it since they really kind of started fading away and planning for the future the year they dealt us Korver. Plus they never put the kind of future assets into winning that the Cavs did during our 4 year run. That takes a toll, and takes longer to recover from.

I think next summer you'll see the Cavs roster purge get close to complete with Kevin Love as the one big ? potentially still in that regard, and you'll see the next lottery pick we make and the roster will all of a sudden be dominated by young guys, and will fit a lot better.....and then a year after that is when the true vision should start to come into focus, maybe we use the asset accumulation of the past couple years to go get the guy we think helps put the entire puzzle together like Atlanta did with Hunter. It's just not there yet. We're a year or two away, and I'm OK with that.

 

[Cavatt]

Lol right.....I mean there AREEEE 3 really big reasons why Dame and CJ couldn't get past Steph and Klay...

The 3 reasons: Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala.

As for the roster cohesion, I get it, but I think its lost that the Cavs are literally only 1 year into this rebuild. Just because we took Sexton doesnt mean we got a jump-start on the process .That's just one pick we got to take, which ended up being a decent pick looking at that part of that draft. Only one guy that went behind Sexton is clearly more valuable right now and that's SGA.

The first year or two of the rebuild is always spent purging the old roster, and starting asset accumulation. Year 3 is the first year where some true cohesion starts to form in terms of building a team that fits. The Cavs are still in the midst of purging the roster.

Atlanta is a full year ahead of us in that regard, really 2 if you think about it since they really kind of started fading away and planning for the future the year they dealt us Korver. Plus they never put the kind of future assets into winning that the Cavs did during our 4 year run. That takes a toll, and takes longer to recover from.

I think next summer you'll see the Cavs roster purge get close to complete with Kevin Love as the one big ? potentially still in that regard, and you'll see the next lottery pick we make and the roster will all of a sudden be dominated by young guys, and will fit a lot better.....and then a year after that is when the true vision should start to come into focus, maybe we use the asset accumulation of the past couple years to go get the guy we think helps put the entire puzzle together like Atlanta did with Hunter. It's just not there yet. We're a year or two away, and I'm OK with that.

Yeah I mean Hunter would have been the guy to add to do what they wanted. Instead we took Garland because Hunter was gone. The other 2 players we took are long and defensive minded. So what are they talking about.

They are mad we didn't take Culver? I guess so.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

Yeah I mean Hunter would have been the guy to add to do what they wanted. Instead we took Garland because Hunter was gone. The other 2 players we took are long and defensive minded. So what are they talking about.

They are mad we didn't take Culver? I guess so.

I still think we take Garland over Hunter if say, Culver went 4th. I just got such strong Garland stuff all week before the draft as soon as that workout happened it seemed like he was going to be the guy.